Versacamm – registration marks?

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Danny,

It’s a doddle – couldn’t be easier 😀

Everything may seem a little daunting at first, but the process soon becomes second nature.

The best thing to do is get the machine, read the instructions (it’s more of a flick through and look at the pictures) have a good play with the VersaCAMM and then ask as many questions as you like.

If you get really stuck I’m just to the East of you in Leyland!

Regards,
Mark

[dannyflint]

cheers.

[Mark Candlin]

It should be simple but I have a lot of agro trying to get the VC to recognize the alignment marks.Seems a bit hit and miss in my expereince.

Any hints or tips on this process would be handy.

Here’s a few ive discovered.

When planning a job try not to use the full width of the material as this means you havent got much room for error when/if you have to re-align
the vinyl.

When reloading the laminated print I align the crop marks with the front bed of the printer, put the clamps down and feed the vinyl back into position, that way the vinyl will be Square for the head to find the alignment marks.( in theory)

As I said it sometimes takes me 5 times to get the printer to find the marks.

One thing I’ve wondered about is whether you have to put the clamp wheels in the same place when cutting as when the original print was done

[Chris Wool]

oh dear you are struggeling arnt you if it dont find it first time we are well miffed.

before you print feed a few ins out then cut it off from now on do not damage that edge – print – feed out a further 5 ins cut off — laminate — replace in to machine lining the front edge of the vinyl with the bed – setup.

if as the head is looking for the second dot the vinyl is moved out or in by the machine then it is going to struggle.
when i had a difficult one i found that the print had been slightly distorted durring lamination actually had to put it in scew wiff to get it to cut.

chris

[Rodney Gold]

Clean the optical sensor (near the cutting blade) With a swab dipped in lens cleaner or alcohol (Ive only used lens cleaner).
You can be about 5 degrees skew before the thing wont recognise the marks. Make sure you have enough vinyl at the back end to cover the material has run out eye. (Or put a bit of masking tape on it if you have cut the piece a bit short at the back – if you forget to take it off , you might run out of material but still carry on printing and cutting with nothing in the machine)
If you have used something like a full matt lam , the marks “soften” and the printer cant read them properly , same with marks printerd on darker material, cut away the lam there.
Theres lots of other stuff you can do with the reg marks in terms of re-aligning things
For instance I print in reverse on clear , the lam with white vinyl and use the crop marks and cut , and voila , there is a decal you can stick inside a window with a die cut white backing. If its a regualr shape , you can even print first on the white backing and then cut , giving you a DOUBLE sided decal you can stick inside a window

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi all
Don’t have the versa camm, but a Mutoh Rocky 38 and summa 1220se what i find sometimes when the Opus won’t find the marks is to go over the marks with a squeegee once this is done the summa picks up the marks no problem. its not that the laminate is not down it just helps define them and take a little gloss of the laminate surface.

Kev

[dannyflint]

Just going to see the machine (VC) for the first time. Excited !

As for laminating. We really do not want to fork out £2k for
a large laminator.

Any suggestions ( UV protection is required, and it
HAS TO BE NONE_TOXIC )

I know Krylon do an acrylic clear coat but I cant seem to find it in this country.

thanks again

Danny

[Rodney Gold]

There is no choice , either you use cold pressure lams or you take the chance with liquids (like the triangle fleet stuff).
The upside of liquids are they are cheap and you need no capital equipment to apply
The downsides are :
You have to wait quite a while for the print to cure , the liquid lam takes time to dry , attracts dust , is not even , offers very little uv , almost no extra abraision resistance , very little solvent or chemical resistance , needs large layout areas , can crack with age , can yellow with age , doesnt conform well and can take the print off with some app papers. It also doesnt solve the curling or vinyl thinning problems inherent in all these machines and some liquids can affect the print itself.
This applies to whatever machine you buy.
If you are doing vehicle graphics , outdoor stuff , decals that are going to be handled etc , then spring for the proper laminator. apart from just protecting graphics , the laminators allow you various finishes and die cut decals that are overlammed command BIG money – they are almost indestructible , even survive acetone attacks etc if you use a good lam. You can give a 3yr warrantee with utmost confidence if the graphic is well protected.
There is a thread on the Roland boards regarding liquid lams and the hassle ppl had with them.